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WESTERLY, RI | Maxson Automatic Machinery Company offers a rapid pallet discharge system said to require no operator involvement and to deliver uninterrupted production while changing skids of material safely without rejecting any acceptable sheets. By eliminating downtime associated with stopping the sheeter to remove skids and reloading with empty pallets, sheeter productivity reportedly is increased by as much as 15%.

The feature works as follows:

When the specified batch count is reached, the cutter ramps down to a reduced speed. At the same time, the high- and low-speed tape sections accelerate clearing sheets from the delivery system.

When the last sheet assigned to the pile enters the stacker, the load table automatically lowers to the off-load position. Simultaneously, the slow-speed tape section adjusts to a creep rate, resulting in heavily overlapped sheets. These sheets move slowly toward the stacker, providing time for the full skid(s) to be lowered and removed.

The rapid pallet discharge system includes a motorized link belt conveyor on the load table, a motorized infeed link belt conveyor, and a motorized outfeed link belt conveyor as well as safety light curtains and operator controls for manual override. All three conveyors are positioned in a pit to make the top of the discharge system flush with the floor.

When the stacker table reaches the lower limit switch, the stacker and outfeed link belt conveyors shuttle the full pallets off line, perpendicular to the web travel of the sheeter. At the same time, the infeed link belt conveyor transfers empty skids onto the stacker link belt conveyor.

Once the new pallets are in position, the load table raises to the stacker’s top limit switch. The sheeter automatically returns to its previous operating speed and overlap setting. No sheets are lost during the skid change, company says.

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